James- Alive?
by MirDeeDee
Summary: What if Dumbledore isn't the kindly grandfatherly type that he seems to be? What if he is just as power-hungry and willing to sacrifice anything for the greater good as he was as a teenager? What if he lied about James being in Godric's Hollow on that fateful Halloween? And what if James believes that his son had died along with his wife? This is the story of James' return.
1. Prologue

James Potter placed the last of the trinkets that had adorned the walls of his Transfiguration classroom into his trunk, and slammed it shut with a sense of finality. After spending the last ten years under contract teaching at the school, and the three before it helping with the designing and building if the school, it would be strange to go back to England. During the summer of 1981, be had been given this assignment by Dumbledore, in an effort to gain support from the American wizards in the ever-mounting war against Voldemort. He had been reluctant to leave at first, but after being convinced that this would be the best way to protect his son from the psychopath, he accepted his new post. His wife and son were to join him on the west coast shortly before Christmas, giving him plenty of time to build their home near the school's grounds where he would be working.

But they didn't make it that long. He had trusted the gormless rat against his gut instinct- he knew that he was the one no one would expect him to choose for this task. Unfortunately, this was exactly what the Dark Lord had hoped for.

His wife and son had been brutally murdered on Halloween, and he hasn't been there to do anything about it.

Unclenching his fists, James sighed and shook his head. He paced over to the window as he reminded himself that there was no point in dwelling on what happened the night. He had spent the last 13 years avoiding the wizarding world of England, and it was time to face them all again.

He was especially excited to see the look on Sirius and Remus's faces when he surprised them in the morning. After all, they were two of the few that he had kept in contact with.

He felt a pang of guilt at the thought of his old friends. He had basically disappeared from the world when the unthinkable had happened that night, although, who could really blame him? He hadn't even seen them since that night, and his job had kept him so busy that he hardly ever had time to write. Their letters seemed to be just as sparce, but he also knew that they were busy as well, and he didn't blame them.

But he was ready to see them again. He was ready to stop grieving and move forward.

He was ready to go home.

At nearly the same time, Harry Potter jolted out of bed after another of his gruesome nightmares that had been plaguing him since the Third Task of the Triwizard Tournament. Green light, jeering laughter, and Cedric's cold, lifeless eyes seemed to haunt his every sleeping moment, and at least half of his waking ones.

The other half of his thoughts were occupied with avoiding his uncle. Harry once would have said that he didn't think that his uncle could be any worse, but he had somehow managed it.

He seemed to be nursing new injuries nightly now, and Harry was getting very good at hiding them. He couldn't help but wish that someone-anyone- would come rescue him from the hell-hole, but he new that no one would. Dumbledore had informed him the week before that he would be unable to leave Privet Drive this summer because the Dursleys' home was the only place that was completely safe against Voldemort.

Harry couldn't help but wonder what was supposed to protect him from the Dursleys.


	2. Chapter 1

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore was feeling particularly pleased with himself. He knew that he had both Harry Potter and the rest of the Wizarding world exactly where he wanted them. Before the events at the end of the Triwizard Tournament the year before, Harry had already felt a sense of gratitude towards him for providing him a reprieve from his dreadful relatives, and for showing love and affection to a small eleven year old who had never experienced it. He felt that helping him save Sirius at the end of his third year had also been a stroke of genius on his part. Allowing him to be kissed by the Dementors had been his original plan, so that he would finally be out of the way for good, but when he saw how concerned Harry was about him, he decided to allow him to survive for now, making Harry feel even further indebted to him. Now that Voldemort had returned, Harry depended on him even further.

The Wizarding World as a whole did not believe that Voldemort had returned, but this suited Albus just fine. He knew that the moment that it was revealed that he truly was back, the public would depend n him even more than now, giving him advantage over Minister Fudge. And having the public disbelieve him meant that they would not believe Harry too, making him feel even more isolated and alone. In his isolated state, it would be easy to swoop in as the "kind, caring mentor", and I would be easy enough to set him on the path of finding and destroying Voldemort's horcruxes. After all, getting the boy both physically and emotionally involved will cause him to be desperate enough, in the end, to sacrifice himself, leaving the playing field wide open for Albus to stand off against Voldemort and save the day once again.

He only had one wild card in his plan: James Potter. He had thus far been able to fool him from around the world by writing false letters of comfort and companionship from his childhood friends, Remus Lupin and Sirius Black. James had not had the option to permanently move back to Britain because of the magically-binding he had to the school, and it had ben easy, through compulsion charms in the false letters to give him the desire to stay in America to grieve. But now that his contract was up, Albus really wasn't in a position to force him to stay. He had sent a letter to the Headmaster of the other school, asking him to try to rehire James, as it was "good for his mental health to be doing something productive that he loved" and that "the sunshine in California was good for him". He also had sent a letter to James (from himself) requesting that he report to his office before going anywhere else, and even if he hadn't, it wouldn't be too difficult to modify his memory, or the memories of anyone who saw him.

Putting aside his concerns about the eldest Potter, he sent Fawkes with a note to Severus Snape, requesting he stop by his office. About 20 minutes later, there was a stern knock on the door.

"Come in, Severus," he said. Albus waited fro the man to fully enter the room and take a seat in one of the rather garish armchairs he had in front of his deask.

"You requested my presence?" Severus said with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes, I'm going to need a new round of loyalty, compulsion, and detestation draughts."

"Why on earth do you need those?"

"Severus, this is one of those times I must ask you not to question me. You know that everything that I do is for the greater good after all."

"Albus, these are no simple potions. It will take weeks for these to be completed!"

"Take as long as you need, Severus. I can wait."

Sirius Black was not having a good day. Being trapped inside his childhood home with nothing but a demented house-elf and the swirling memories of his nightmarish adolescent years was not good for his psyche.

Sighing, he sluggishly drug himself to his feet and stumbled to the ornate liquor cabinet for another bottle of firewiskey. It had been the same routine since he had returned to London: wake up and drown his memories and sorrows in the bottom of a bottle. Sirius knew that this wasn't really going to solve any of his problems, but he felt so hopeless and lost that firewiskey seemed like the only escape from his own self. He barely even attended Order meetings anymore, despite the fact that they were held in his house.

Suddenly, there was a loud pounding at the door. Knowing that only an Order member could be at the door, Sirius shuffled his way to the door and threw it open. Standing on the stoop was his long-time friend and brother, Remus Lupin.

"Moony! What a pleasant surprise! A marvelous, sublime, wondrous, amazing surprise!"

Remus wrinkled his nose in distaste. "Have you been drinking Sirius? It's still 9 o'clock in the morning!"

"Or course-hic- not! Why would I do that Moonikins?"

Sirius was now giving Remus his best innocent puppy-eye look, but Remus had known him long enough to see right through it. "Come on Sirius, let's get you cleaned up."

Grabbing his upper arm, Remus managed to steer him back into the kitchen to sit at the table that he had previously occupied. With a wave of his wand, Remus cleared all of the debris and empty bottles that ha littered the table. Noting that Sirius had slumped forward and passed out on the table, Remus turned to make a pot of strong coffee. Every time he came back from a mission from the Order it seemed that Sirius only got worse and worse. He wasn't made to be cooped up any more than his large dog animagus form was.

A cup of strong, black coffee and a long shower later, Sirius was mostly sober again, and feeling intensely ashamed of himself, as he usually did when Remus returned and found him so intoxicated. He knew the werewolf would be waiting for him in the large Black family library, no doubt devouring another of the rather large tomes contained within.

Steeling himself to swallow his pride and apologize, he slowly pushed the door open to face his friend. Before he could get any words out, however, there was a large crash from the kitchen.

Both men immediately grabbed their wands and raced to confront whatever had caused the noise, but neither of the men were prepared for what they would find. Picking himself off the floor in front of the fireplace was James Potter- or at least someone who looked just like him.

"You'd think that 35 years would help a bloke become adjusted to the floo, wouldn't you?" He asked with a rueful grin.

Before he could say anything else, however, Remus crossed the room in three long strides and held his wand to his throat. "Who are you, and what do you think you're playing at?" he demanded with a snarl that seemed to reflect his wolfish nature more than his human one.

Eyes scrunched up in confusion, the James look-alike looked up at Remus. "Um, Moony, it's me. I know it's been awhile, but I had rather hoped you hadn't forgotten what I looked like. "

Remus only growled deep in his throat. "Prove it: what is my 'furry little secret', and when did you find out about it?"

James continued to look confused, but answered anyway, "Your secret is that you were bitten by a werewolf when you were very young. We found out about it near the beginning of second year, but we didn't confront you about it until the middle if the year because we didn't like that you felt like you had to lie to us about it."

"I'm afraid that isn't going to be enough," Sirius cut in. "The rat could have easily told you all of that."

Remus seemed to ponder his words for a moment before a large smirk came over his face. "Turn into Prongs. No one could fake that."

To his astonishment, instead of arguing, the man in front of him did just that. Remus dropped to his knees in shock, his mouth gaping in disbelief. As James changed back Sirius launched himself at him with a large sob.

"What in Merlin's name is going on here?"

Sirius suddenly backed away indignantly. "I'm pretty sure you're the one who should be answering that question. Where the hell have you been for the last 14 years?"

As James finally got a close up look at Sirius for the first time, he seemed to almost recoil from the shock of his appearance. "I've been in America under a building and teaching contract. What do you mean where have I been? We've been in constant correspondence the entire time! And what the hell happened to you? And why all of the suspicion when I came in?"

"James," Sirius whispered, "every wizard in Britain believes that you've been dead for 14 years, I'm sorry if we were a bit shocked when you dropped into my kitchen. And I most certainly haven't been in contact with you, or I wouldn't have spent 13 of the last 14 years rotting away in Azkaban!"

"Azkaban? What did you do?"

"Well, according to the charges against me, I sold you out to Voldemort and then I blew up half a street of muggles in order to murder the rat," Sirius said nonchalantly.

"But why were you charged with betraying us? Dumbledore knew you were the secret keeper! And it was also in our final wills as well, just in case. And you didn't really kill anyone, right?"

"Of course not! Although I did mean to kill the rat, of course. He just manage to squeeze his way of the situation, blowing up the street as a distraction, painting me a the guilty one since he disappeared leaving only his finger behind."

"His finger?"

"He cut it off, but that's not important. What is important is the fact that you say Dumbledore knew about the switch? Then why was I sent to Azkaban without a trail?"

"That is just one of many million galleon questions Padfoot."

A/N:

I am so, so, sorry that took me so long to update! My laptop is broken, and so I had to type this out on my iPhone. Add that to the fact that I just started back to college means that this took a lot longer than I anticipated! Also, I apologize for any grammar/spelling mistakes that I didn't catch; it's really hard to see then on this little screen. :)

What did you think of this chapter? Please feel free to tell me exactly what you thought in a review. :)

Oh, and in case it isn't obvious, I'm definitely not JK Rowling, I just like to mess around in her world once in a while. :)


	3. Chapter 2

As James watched his two best friends gaping at him in shock, the sense of dread and confusion that had ceased his chest seemed to swell. He couldn't even comprehend the possibility that the past fourteen years of his life had largely been a lie, and he was having a hard time reconciling the two haggard looking men standing before him with the memories of the roguish, handsome Marauders they had once been.

Lost in thoughts, James jumped rather violently when Remus jumped into action. "Tea! We need lots of tea! And chocolate certainly wouldn't help my frayed nerves either," he muttered as he moved towards the cupboard.

Seemingly brought out of his previous stupor, Sirius let out a loud bark of laughter. "I must be either too drunk, or not nearly drunk enough!" An with that he stumbled over towards the rather large and expensive looking liquor cabinet in the corner. Before he could get the cabinet open however, Remus paused in his tea preparations to send a wand less spell over his shoulder that forced Sirius into one of the chairs across the room. After struggling to get up from the chair for a few moments, Sirius seemed to realize he wasn't going anywhere and settled for pouting petulantly with his arms crossed over his chest.

Remus ignored his rather childish display and instead set the table for tea. "I think it would be much better for you to be sober for this conversation Padfoot, I expect James won't want to rehash this more than once."

"No, I expect not," James said grimly. "Where should I start?"

"How about starting with why you aren't dead?" Sirius snapped. "Or where you have been for the last fourteen years? Or why in Merlin's name you thought it was ok to abandon us like you did?"

"Pads, I don't know why you thought I was dead. Like I already said, I've been on assignment in California for all these years. Remember? I was building the school and teaching? We thought that was the best way to keep us safe. That it would keep us far enough away from Voldemort and the war that we wouldn't be such big targets. Before I could move my family out with me, Voldemort had attacked and I couldn't bear to return to a house that was so empty and alone. And I knew he disappeared, but Dumbledore said that he thought he'd be back, so I agreed to stay in America to build more allies so that we would have support if he ever grew in power again."

" Why haven't we heard from you then? Why didn't you contact either of us?" Remus whispered.

"But I did!" James proclaimed exasperatedly. "I've written you letters several times a year! I even have some of your replies from more recently in my trunk!" After a bit of digging, James pulled a thick bundle of letters from the depths of his large trunk.

After reading through a few of these letters, Remus shook his head and looked up at James sadly. "James, you would find more truth about the last fourteen years in the Quibbler than you would in any of these letters.

James was stunned. He already knew that things were messed up, but this simple statement from his calm and solemn friend seemed to really drive that point home for him. "I don't understand. Did Dumbledore lie? I know for sure that he knows I'm alive. I've seen him over the years. And if he knows, what else has he lied about?"

Remus and Sirius shot each other wary glances that put James on guard immediately. "James," Sirius began, completely sober suddenly, "what do you know about what happened on that Halloween in '81?"

"I really don't know any details," James said with a pang. The thought if that night never failed to cause a sharp pain in his chest. "I know that Peter sold u out to Voldemort. I know that Voldemort forced his way in- into our house. And I know that he mur- murdered my wife and baby boy all because of a stupid prophecy that I never even be- believed in!" James could hardly be understood due to the great sob that heaved in his chest.

Sirius and Remus looked at each other with concern. They let thief friend calm down for a moment before Remus began somewhat timidly,"James-Prongs- you need to know something."

At his tone, James looked up sharply, feeling a strange sense of hope that he very quickly tried to squash down. He didn't need the heartbreak of this was bad news. "Moony?"

But it was Sirius who spoke next. "Harry wasn't killed James. He survived."

James could feel his world tilt on its axis. To say he was shocked would have been a horrible understatement. His heart seemed to leap with wild joy that he couldn't seem to contain. Knowing that he would be crushed if he was somehow misunderstanding his friend, he gasped out in disbelief. Sirius seemed to realize how much this simple statement meant to his friend, an after a wave of Remus's wand he moved over to the other side of the table and held onto his brother in all but blood as he succumbed for the second time to great gasping sobs. After a few minutes, James finally got control of himself. "Where is he?" he asked almost reverently with a look towards the stairs.

Sirius hesitated and let out a large sigh. "No, Prongs, he isn't," he said bitterly.

"Where is he then? Did he end up with Alice and Frank?"

Sirius cringed and shook his head sadly. "No. I'm afraid they aren't fit to raise a child anymore, James. Bellatrix and some of Voldemort's other fanatical followers saw to that."

James flinched, but persisted with his original line if questioning. "Where I he then? With Minny? Andromeda? Molly?"

Sirius only shook his head sadly again. "Harry lives with Petunia, James."

At his words, James visibly paled. "WHAT? We have to get him out of there. Now!"

Harry couldn't believe it. He was stuck in his stupid cupboard again. He hadn't been given this particular punishment in years, and if it had been cramped to him then, as a small ten year old, it was nothing compared to now after four years of growth, combined with all of his school supplies and his school trunk. Not that it mattered to the Dursleys. All that mattered to them was that he hasn't finished the impossibly long list that they had given him after catching him sneaking food from the kitchen, never mind the fact that he hadn't eaten in three days or that he was on the verge of collapsing due to the lack of nourishment.

Harry looked around in desperation for a way out of his prison, but he knew from experience that he wouldn't find one. He had become increasingly claustrophobic over the years after spending the majority of his childhood locked up in here, and he had hoped to avoid the cupboard for as long as he could.

With a quiet sigh he tried to shift himself into a more comfortable position that didn't aggravate the newest collection of injuries he had collected at the hands of his uncle after this latest misdemeanor. He was certain that he had at least bruised several ribs, if not broken them, and he knew his wrist was rebroken. He had only been back at Privot Drive for two weeks and this was shaping up to be the worst summer yet.

Suddenly, he heard a loud crash from the floor above, followed closely by his uncle yelling, "BOY!" in that particular tone that told him that he was about to blamed for hate vet had just crashed to the floor. Cringing back into the far wall, Harry tried to make himself as small as possible as he listened to the telltale sound of his uncle thundering down the stairs.

Flinging open the cupboard with a snarl, his uncle dragged him into the hallway and up to his tiny bedroom where it would be less likely for the neighbors to see. "What the HELL? Do you think that just because you're angry you can throw a tantrum and smash your aunt's china cabinet? You are going to pay for every one of those priceless pieces of china! Every piece of china smashed is a strike against you now. I'll destroy this rebellious streak of yours yet!"

Harry dropped to the floor in a fetal position in an effort to protect his midsection as his uncle begins to throw punches and kicks at every inch of his body that he can reach. Almost involuntarily, Harry let out a whimper when he was struck in the head. "You think that hurts you little FREAK? Let's see how you feel about my belt!"

Dragging Harry from the floor, His uncle began to attack him with renewed rage with the buckle on his belt. Suddenly, without warning, his uncle was thrown across the room and stuck to the wall. Harry immediately collapsed to the ground an tried to cover his head. When he realized that his uncle was not only frozen but silenced to the wall, Harry dragged himself to his feet. He felt like a giant bruise, and he knew that he definitely had more broken bones and large welts appearing everywhere. Deciding that he had enough, and not wanting to miss his chance for escape, Harry moved as quickly as he could manage back down the stairs to his cupboard. Thankful that his uncle had not taken the time to lock the cupboard back when he had grabbed him, Harry quickly grabbed his things and left the Dursleys.

Wanting to get as far as he could from the house, Harry headed for the small park that he visited as a child. He knew that he would at least be able to sit on the swings while he made a plan on what to do next. The Knight Bus made the most sense, but he didn't dare stop for his wand until he was as far away from his uncle as possible.

When he finally got to the park, Harry slowly sunk onto one of the swings in relief. He desperately wanted to slip into the darkness of unconsciousness that seemed to be clinging to the edges of his mind, but he knew that the blows that his head had taken from his uncle made that idea extraordinarily dangerous. With a very loud groan, Harry forced his battered body to move and find his wand. After a moment or two of searching, Harry finally found his wand, and he instantly felt safer.

Until he realized how cold the air had grown while he was preoccupied. The sense of deep despair that suddenly overcame him only confirmed the presence of his worst fears, and as he spun around he realized that there were two of them right behind him on the other side of the swings. He desperately tried to remember a strong enough good memory to cast a patronus, but his recent encounter with his uncle seemed to be the only thing that he could remember.

"Expecto- Expecto Pat-Patronum. Expecto-"

No matter how hard he tried to remember good memories, he couldn't get the image of his enraged uncle, raising his belt up for another strike and practically spitting in his fury, out of his mind. Harry slowly drifted down farther and farther into the darkness. 'Maybe it won't be so bad, dying that is. Surely it would be better for everyone? What's the point anyway? All I do is anger the only relatives I have left.. and put my friends in danger... Maybe it's for the best...'

Before Harry fully succumbed to the darkness he suddenly felt a sense of warmth and saw a large silver lights chase away the terrifying presence that had held him by the neck only moments before. He hear panicked shouting somewhere that seemed very far away, and then he knew no more.


	4. Chapter 3

As they appeared on the dark and quiet playground, Remus and Sirius follow an enraged James towards Privet Drive. Sirius was the first one to notice the icy, clammy tension in the air. Whirling around with wand in hand, he realized with mounting horror that there was not only two Dementors in the park with them, but that there was also a very small teenager. The teen was trying to cast a patronus, but the silver mist was feeble and seemed to flicker out almost instantly.

Pulling Remus, who has also paused along with him, and crying out to James, he raced towards the teen as the dementor nearest him closed in on him and lowered his hood, preparing for the dreaded Kiss. The three men all cast the patronus at the same time and watched with bated breath, all praying that they had been in time to save the teen. The silver stag, dog, and wolf all charged the two dementors, who glided away from the boy and out of the park.

"James, we have to get that kid to St. Mungo's. I know you want to get to Harry, but this can't wait. I promise we can come back as soon as we are sure that the kid is ok," Remus said.

James didn't answer, but he headed over to the teen with his two friends in tow. Sirius gasped and James looked at him questioningly.

"James-that's Harry!"

James's heart lurched as he raced over to his son. Harry looked much too small in his large baggy clothes, and there was a nasty black eye blossoming on the left side. His glasses where missing, but after a quick look around James found them along with his wand and his trunk.

"What happened to him Padfoot? Why is he so tiny? And what is he doing out here in the middle of the night with all of his school stuff?"

"I don't really know James," Sirius whispered, "but I do know that we need to get him out of here, and quickly. Moony, is it safe to apperate with him?"

"I don't think we have a choice, Padfoot. He needs care as soon as possible, and there isn't a floo nearby that isn't somehow connected to Dumbledore and with everything that's happened it's probably best that we stay under the radar, for now at least." Remus seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before speaking up again, "we probably should also avoid St. Mungo's and Grimmauld Place for the same reasons, although this may be more than we can handle alone. Let's get him back to my place and then we can figure out our options."

With a look of grim determination on his face, James scooped up the unconscious Harry bridal-style and apperated away. With a wary look at Sirius, Remus grabbed Harry's trunk and they both disappeared into the night.

After several hours of grueling and panicked healing spells and potions, Harry was finally stabilized and had been moved to the guest bedroom on the first floor. Remus was passed out at the kitchen table, exhausted due to the large amount of magic he used to heal Harry and the impending full moon. James and Sirius also sat at the table, sitting across from each other with barely-touched cups of tea, discussing the day fiercely in hushed tones.

Sirius was nearly growling in his frustration at James. "I don't know what you want me to say, I know about as much as you do in this situation!"

"Why? Why don't you know more? You're supposed to be his godfather! You should have been there for him instead of running off on that suicide mission chasing Peter!"

"Don't! Don't you throw that in my face! I had to pay for my mistake everyday for twelve years in the presence of those damned Dementors, hell, I'm still paying for my mistakes now! I can't even stay fully sober without feeling their effects on me! I know I should have been there for Harry, trust me I know. I've regretted not being there for him every single day since that night, and doubly so now that I am around. If you had a clue about the things be and his friends have gotten up to in the last four years you'd be astonished. The sad thing is I'm sure I don't even know the half of it."

"What he's gotten up to? What in Merlin's name are you talking about Padfoot?"

"James, I need you to promise to remain calm about this, ok? Harry doesn't need you to freak out on him; he needs your support."

"You're making him sound like a delinquent, Sirius, what in the world did he do to make you talk like that? Surely he can't have been as bad as us, hmm?"

"A delinquent? Ha! That I could handle. I'm afraid I'm way out of my depth with this though. Just promise me, Prongs."

"Alright, alright, I promise."

"Oh, and you have to let me finish everything I have to say before you respond ok? I need to get all of this out."

"Alright, sheesh Padfoot, get on with it!"

"Well, as far as I know, Harry has met Voldemort three times since he began Hogwarts- no interruptions!- the most recent encounter being this past year. I know that he faced him the first time as a first year, although I'm very fuzzy on the details. Something about protecting the Philosopher's stone and Voldemort possessing a teacher. In his second year he faced him again, this tine to rescue Ginny Weasley, although it was apparently some sort of memory that had been trapped in a diary. In his third year he didn't face Voldemort, but that is the year I escaped, and the whole truth about the secret-keepers was revealed to Harry and Remus. Can you believe that rat was posing as a pet in the Weasley household all that time?! Anyway, those were his first three years. Any questions so far?"

"Only about a thousand! But none that you probably know the answer to from the sound of it. I have a feeling Harry and I will be having a very long conversation about his life-preservation instincts, or lack thereof."

"Good luck, I know Hermione has tried drilling the danger of his 'saving people thing' for years."

"Hermione?"

"Oh! Right! She's one of Harry's best friends, along with Ron Weasley. There are his partners-in-crime, so to speak."

James paused, needing to process all of this new information. After a moment, he slowly turned his attention back to Sirius, "so that's twice, but you failed to tell me a third time, or anything about his fourth year for that matter."

Sirius cringed and seemed to steel himself. "Prongs, this next bit isn't going to be easy for you to hear. Harry's year was horrific, and I don't want you to feel guilty about it, because there is nothing you could have done, even if you had been here, got it?

James blanched, but nodded, needing to know the truth.

"This is the year I know the most about, since this is the year I've been in contact with him. The Triwizard Tournament was brought back to Hogwarts."

"What? Why?"

"I don't actually know the reasoning, but it was. And James, somebody entered Harry into the tournament. He had to compete as the fourth champion"

"How did I know things weren't going to go right for him for once?"

"Because they rarely seem to? Trust me, I was so angry when I found out. He did do remarkably well though. He had to face this huge Hungarian Horntail-"

"WHAT?!"

"-but he just summoned his broom and got past him. He just had to get an egg from underneath the dragon-"

"He had to face a nesting Hungarian Horntail?!"

"Unfortunately, although he did a marvelous job, he was barely scathed. And the second task was getting Ron out of the lake from the merpeople."

"...merpeople? As in, the merpeople who live at the bottom of the lake?!"

"Er- yes, those merpeople. And James, he just runs in there and eats gillyweed and gets there in no time! Mind you, he was the last one back because he's too noble for his own good, and he had to make sure all of the other hostages were safe too. He still ended up tied with the other Hogwarts champion by the end of this task though, because the judges decided that he showed strong moral fiber and all that."

"Of course he did." James sighed, still trying to process how much of a trouble-magnet his son seemed to be. And amazing when he stopped to consider it. Many grown wizards hadn't faced half of what he had, and it sounded like he faced everything head on and bravely. James felt pride well up in his chest for Harry, before it slowly deflated when he realized Sirius had still avoided telling him about Harry's latest encounter with Voldemort. The longer Sirius was taking to tell him about it the more apprehensive he felt about it. Never one to beat around the bush, James decided it was time to steer the conversation in that direction again. "What happened Sirius? How did he face Voldemort again?"

"I'm getting there James, this is all important. The third task was this ginormous maze that covered the Quidditch pitch. He and Cedric, the other champion entered the maze at the same time, because of their tie. It was actually really hard to see what was going on in the maze. I was hidden in my dog form near Hagrid's, so I could hear the commentary, but apparently even front the stands there wasn't much to see. From what I can gather, Cedric and Harry reached the cup at the same time, and decided to grab the cup, sharing a Hogwarts victory. But the cup didn't send up sparks like it was supposed to. It was a portkey." Sirius stopped to let this sink in with James, who was looking rather like he was the one who needed a firewiskey. After a moment he seemed to collect his thoughts and nodded for Sirius to continue. "Both the boys were transported to a graveyard far from Hogwarts. Peter was there; he had Voldemort, who ordered him to kill Cedric." James inhaled sharply at this, and blanched even further, but he just nodded Sirius on. "After that they did some sort of ritual to give him a body again, although I'm not really sure how that worked. I know it had something to do with Harry, but that's all I could gather from what Harry was able to explain. He called all of his Death Eaters to him, and he and Harry dueled, an somehow Harry managed to escape. There was more, but I think he should be the one to tell you the rest when he's ready."

As the seconds grew into minutes that James still hasn't moved to respond to Sirius's explanation, Sirius became more an more concerned. What if he had said too much, too soon? The man had just learned his son was even alive mere hours ago, why if he couldn't handle the extra shock? Sirius was on the verge of waving hi hand in front of James's face for a response or waking up Remus when James suddenly jumped to his feet, almost causing Sirius to jump out of his seat. He headed straight to the liquor cabinet and took two shots of firewiskey in quick succession before Sirius caught onto what was going on and tried prying the bottle out of his hands.

"No, James! Harry needs you! He needs a sober you! You can't lose yourself right now, we have to take care of Harry!" After a few minutes struggle, James finally relented his grip on the bottle and slumped to the floor.

Sirius calmly placed the bottle in the cupboard and the sat cross-legged on the floor in front of James. "Deep breaths, Jamie. If you need to transform into Prongs, it helps. Trust me, no one would judge you."

James nodded, but before he woke up there was a resounding crash from upstairs.

It seemed their youngest house guest was awake at last.

**A/N I know, I know; I have no excuse for how long that took for me to update. But in my defense, I've had three papers due, gotten the flu, and had midterms, all in the past few weeks. So maybe you could not crucify me for taking so long to update this? Yes? Maybe?**

**Anyway, I'm not super thrilled with this chapter. It's an awfully lot of dialogue, but I really needed to get all of this all out of the way. But don't worry, there is a Harry/James reunion in y'all's futures. ;)**


	5. Chapter 4

Rolling to his feet with wand in hand, Harry began to panic. He didn't know where he was, nor did he remember how he got there. The last thing he could remember was the feeling of the clammy, rotting hands of the Dementor before he blacked out. He quickly did a survey of the small room he awoke in. It was small, but very cosy with warm beige walls, and a thick rug under his feet. There was a double bed, a small bedside table and a modest wardrobe that were a dark mahogany color. There was a large window that faced a forest, that also showed him that he was on the second floor of the building.

The next thing he noticed after taking in his surroundings was the lack of pain he was feeling. He still felt exhausted, but he knew that all of the injuries, old and new, that he has received from his uncle that summer were healed.

Before he could think up a plan of action, the door opened to reveal the smiling face of his godfather. Laughing in relief, Harry lowered his wand and allowed himself to be pulled into a hug. When Sirius finally let him go, Harry lowered himself to his bed, unable to keep the grin off his face.

"Sirius! How have you been? How did we get here? Where is here? What-"

"Harry! Slow down, kiddo. Let's take this one question at a time, hmm? Firstly, I'm fine, more than fine, excellent. But we'll get to that in a minute. We're at Remus's house. We needed to come collect you, and it looked like we were just in time! Seeing the Dementors with you was the scariest thing I've ever seen in my life!"

"It was definitely scary for me too. Dementors are my. Boggart after all."

"Really? I didn't know that."

"Yeah, Remus introduced them to us in DADA in third year, and that's how he taught me how to do a patronus. Not that it worked this time.."

"I don't think that was entirely your fault, Harry. You were in pretty sorry shape when we found you. And it wasn't the sort of injuries that one sustains from a dementor attack. And, curiously enough, they weren't all new either. Some of them seemed at least a couple of weeks old. Is there anything you need to tell me Harry?"

"What? Those?" Harry was feeling thoroughly panicked by now. He knew his uncle couldn't do anything to him while he was with Sirius and Remus, but Harry was afraid of what would happen if he found out that he had told them about his treatment during the summer. Thinking quickly, he replied, "Those are just from some scraps I've gotten into with some of the neighborhood boys. No big deal, I've dealt with it before. Nothing to worry about."

Sirius seemed to X-ray him with the intensity of his gaze, and he couldn't maintain eye contact with him when he was looking at him like that. After a tense pause in the conversation, Sirius sighed heavily and finally dropped his gaze. "I'm willing to key it go for now, since you're still recovering, but we are going to have to talk about this eventually Harry. You can't hide forever."

Harry felt a trill of panic rise up in him, but he tried not to show it to Sirius. It had always been drilled into him not to talk about how he was treated at home. No one vet believed him. He tried to get help once, after he started school, but after a couple of clever lies about Harry wing unbalanced and his supposed tendency to get into fights with the neighborhood kids, his teacher didn't do anything to help him. Aunt Petunia had invited her to tea and biscuits, and as soon as she left Harry got his first real beating for "discrediting his aunt and uncle" and "spreading freaky lies". Harry was in no hurry to try to share his predicament again after that. And beside that, Sirius couldn't do anything about it as a wanted criminal, except confront his uncle, but that would only make things worse. And Harry only had one more summer to endure there after this one, and then he'd be an adult, so it seemed pointless to complain now; he felt it would be better to just ride it out, he'd be fine.

"Harry, there's something I need to tell you." Sirius's eyes lit up as he said this, making him looks years younger. Harry almost laughed as he voiced in his seat, seeming to almost burst at the seams with whatever news he had. His grin was infectious. "Actually, I think it would be much better to show you."

"Show me? What in the world are you so worked up and excite over Sirius?" It was good to see his godfather so excited about something, but Harry was feeling a sense of metaphorical whiplash after just finishing the other conversation they were having.

Sirius practically bounced over to the door and yanked another person into the room by their arm. Harry was absolutely gobsmacked as he tried to take in the figure in front of him. The man was about a head taller than Harry, and looked like he had spent quite a bit more time out in the sun. He was also a bit bulkier, although that may have been more due to the fact that Harry was so scrawny from his time on Privet Drive than the man's size. The details his mind almost refused to take in were the bright hazel eyes frames by round glasses, and messy, out-of-control Potter hair that was identical to his own. The man was an exact replica of the photos of his father that was in his scrap book from Hagrid, aged about a decade and with a suntan.

The man's face lit up with a grin, and that seemed to snap Harry out if his trance. Shaking his head incredulously, he slowly backed away from the man who looked like his father until his back hit the wall. He couldn't except this. It wasn't possible. He had heard him die when he was being attacked by Dementors, heck, he had seen a shadow of him come out of Voldemort's wand during their duel in the graveyard the previous school year. Harry knew that he was on the verge of a panic attack, so he drew in a deep breath before sending his fiercest glare at the imposter a that were in front of him.

"Did Voldemort really, truly believe I'd fall for someone posing as my very dead father? Having someone pose as Sirius was a nice touch, a good way to get my guard down. I actually believed it was him for a bit there. Whoever you are, your acting is impeccable." He stood with all of his muscles tensed, ready to spring into action the moment they either attacked or left an opening to escape through.

The Sirius imposter looked totally bewildered. "Harry it really is us. And I know it seems impossible that this could be your dad, but Remus and I have already confirmed that it really is!"

"I don't believe you! This is low, even for Death Eaters!"

"Harry we aren't Death Eaters. I just wanted to help you!" He took a cautious step towards Harry, but Harry took this as an attack and sent a stupefy quickly in his direction. Dodging the stupefy, he tried to disarm Harry, but Harry was already ducking down expecting the attack, and he quickly sent back a full-body bind at him, and chaos ensued.

James watched the unfolding fight between his son and his best friend unfold in shock. He was in turmoil after seeing his son after so many years and not having him believe that he was who he said he was. He was also in awe at his son who was holding his own against his best friend, who at one point in time been one of the top Hit Wizards in the auror department. The room was being destroyed as they both struggled to land a hit, and James was having difficulty taking it all in. When a stray hex narrowly missed his head and hit the wall behind him, he decided it was time to join in the fight. Throwing his own disarming spells at his son, he realized how hard he really was to hit. Suddenly, Sirius went down with why he thought was a stupify, and he was left standing along against his son, who wasting no time in focusing all of his power on him. In the contained room, it was much more difficult for the older Potter to dodge the younger's spells, and he was soon hit by a full-body bind. He saw the door slip open and a stream of red light hit Harry's back before he could turn, and he slowly slumped to the floor.

Remus then crept through the door, and did the counter spells on both Sirius and James, who quickly moved to Harry's side.

"You hexed my son!"

"And your son both stupefied Sirius and managed to get you into a full-body bind"

"I- he- that's not the point!"

"That's exactly the point James! He-"

"Shut up, both of you! We need to figure out what to do next. He obviously doesn't really believe us. I think he was mostly panicked. He doesn't know James the way we do after all."

Their argument effectively interrupted, James and Remus both tried to think of a good solution. It was Remus who finally came up with the idea of James and Sirius taking Harry's wand downstairs, and letting Remus explain everything to Harry. After the other two Marauders grudgingly left, he cautiously revived Harry. He was on his feet in an instant, grasping for his wand, and when he couldn't find it, he panicked and tried to make himself as small as possible. The sight broke Remus's heart, and he very slowly moved over to the small teen and placed a hand on his shoulder. Harry immediately stiffened up, but otherwise didn't respond to Remus.

Remus lowered himself to the ground next to Harry with a heavy sigh and decided to wait him out. After a few moments, Harry's curiosity got the better of him, and he snuck a peek at Remus through a gap in his arms. "Prove you're really him. I just need you to."

"I gave you the Marauders Map at the end of your third year after I resigned from my teaching post due to my secret of being a werewolf getting out. Snape told his students. Sirius is innocent, and I know because of the confrontation that occurred in the Shrieking Shack between he, Peter, and myself. You wouldn't let us kill him. My nickname is Moony, after my lycanthropy. Is that enough?"

Harry seemed to appraise him for a moment, and then he seemed to relax. "And that's really Sirius?"

"Yes."

"But that can't be my dad! It just can't be! People don't just come back from the dead!

"Harry, look at me." After Harry finally lifted his head and looked at him, Remus gave him the most sincere and serious look that he could muster. "Your father was never dead. He's been in California all this time. He was lied to, and so were the rest of us. Harry, he thought you were dead too, and he was so heartbroken that he stayed away for as long as he could. Someone even sent him fake letters from Sirius and I, and prevented us from getting his letters. He was the one who insisted on coming to get you as soon as he found out you were alive."

Harry seemed to be having an internal debate. "How do you know it's really him?" he asked in a small voice.

"He transformed in the kitchen. It's been years, but Moony still recognizes pack mates."

"Oh. I didn't hurt them, did I?"

Remus laughed out loud at this. "Nothing but their pride, cub."

"Cub?"

"Oh, er, I used to call you that, when you were a baby. You're a pack cub, at least as far as Moony is concerned, so it just popped out. If you don't like it I don't have to call you that, it's just-"

"Remus! It's alright, I don't mind." Harry was laughing for the first time in what felt like ages, and once Remus shook off the shock of being interrupted, he joined in. They laughed so hard tears began to stream down their faces, and as soon as one of them began to collect themselves, they would glance at each other and the laughter would start all over again. The day had just been too bizarre, and they both needed to laugh it off in order to cope with it.

After they had both calmed down, Harry fixed Remus with a piercing stare. "I'm going to have to face him again, aren't I?"

"I'm afraid so, Harry."

"Well, might as well get that over with, eh?"

He scrambled to his feet and offered his hand to Remus, and then tentatively moved down the stairs to meet the father he didn't know he still had until that night.

**A/N**

**Alright y'all. I could give you a long string of excuses, but I know they aren't going to be enough. I just have been super busy, combined with writer's block and a lack of motivation to write, so I just haven't gotten around to this in forever. Please forgive me. :)**

**I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Harry finally believes that James is alive, but let me just give you fair warning: it still isn't going to be easy for any of our heroes. Let me know what y'all thought, and justly me know if you guys want to see anything in particular later on in the story.**

**Review, review, review!**

**Love you guys!**

**Xoxo**


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